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I bought a Z-Wave E27 light bulb to command a lamp from my PC for specific alerts. Obviously I had to plug it into the outlet to include it into the Z-wave network.

During a few minutes it worked : I could command it on and off.

But later, commands where not successful and Domoticz told me that the signal failed, and in the Z-wave monitor my light bulb is marked dead! Later again, the signal is OK... Exclude/include didn't work.

The light bulb is far from the controller but a Z-Wave door detector is in the middle of the path (~4 meters). I suppose Z-wave is "mesh" configured so my door detector should relay the signal...

  • Is there something I can do to "enhance" the signal?
  • Are there settings in Domoticz where I can reassign the network (healing doesn't work)?
Helmar
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Goufalite
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1 Answers1

5

The rated range of Z-Wave devices in general is designed for indoor "perfect conditions" so if the max range of a device is 100 ft. that assumes no noise and no interference. If you have any other devices on similar frequencies or objects that may attenuate the signal, it most likely will never achieve that range. In an environment with a lot of devices (not in the same network), I've seen the range reduced by over half.

If the node in the middle is a sleeping device it definitely won't act as a repeater unless it is awake. Without getting a Zniffer trace of the locations I can't tell exactly what the issue is, but some things to keep in mind and may help (or hurt) is:

  • Sleeping devices most likely will not relay a message unless they are awake which if they are the crux of your network will be an issue.
  • More devices will make your mesh network bigger and have more paths to nodes, but more traffic (a lot of ZWave messages) will make your network nosier and harder to reliable send messages causing some messages to drop.
  • If you move devices, you should always rediscover so the controller knows the best path to a device.

Another thing to note is a device can be marked failed by the Z-Wave controller if one message failed to send.

Sean Houlihane
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Dom
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